Homeplus has entered corporate rehabilitation procedures, raising concerns about potential losses for individual investors who purchased commercial paper (CP) and electronic short-term bonds. In response, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has begun to investigate the situation.
According to the financial investment industry on the 10th, the FSS sent an official letter to securities firms and asset management companies, requesting them to submit information by the 12th regarding the amount of Homeplus-related CPs, short-term bonds, and card receivables-backed asset-backed securities (ABSTB) sold to individuals.
Excluding financial and lease liabilities, Homeplus’s financial bonds, which are based on card receivables, include approximately 400 billion KRW in ABSTB and about 200 billion KRW in CP and short-term bonds, totaling around 600 billion KRW. It is estimated that most of these were sold to individual and corporate retail investors rather than large institutional investors.
If the sellers, such as securities companies, failed to adequately explain the credit rating risks of Homeplus to individual investors, there is speculation that this could lead to issues of incomplete sales.
An FSS representative stated, “It is not a situation where we can predict whether there are incomplete sales,” adding, “As personal losses are expected, we have requested materials to understand the current status.”